


Gathering Experience

by Maat (maat_seshat)



Category: Saiunkoku Monogatari
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 21:18:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maat_seshat/pseuds/Maat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another day, another corrupt official. Shuurei and Seiran visit Tan-tan in the provinces and get a bit of help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gathering Experience

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucathia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucathia/gifts).



> Anime Canon

Suou shelved the last report with a sigh. Up to date, until the next batch of information came in. Not for the first time, he aimed an exasperated thought at Ensei, far away in the capital. _Experience_. He shook his head. Neatly outflanked, truly. He never used to like work, before he met Shuurei.

Horses neighed outside the house, and if Suou listened carefully, he could hear hoofbeats on the pounded dirt of his courtyard. Very few of the gyoshi he supervised had easy access to horses for traveling, and even fewer traveled with companions. He ran through a tally even as he walked toward the door. Shige and Kiyo? No, they had reported in just last week. Perhaps provincial messengers, though he couldn't imagine why the governor would send a pair when one man would— His thoughts stopped abruptly when he heard a very distinctive clatter. Apprehensive now, he slid the door open, careful to remain behind it at all times. A familiar scene greeted him as he peeked out.

Seiran stood with the reins of both horses in one fist, while Shuurei berated him, her back to the door. A piece of bamboo lay in front of his doorway. Suou restrained himself from looking for the scrape he was certain now marred his front door. He was surprised Seiran had refrained from sharpening the bamboo so that it would _stick_ in the door. A flicker of Seiran's eyes warned him he had been spotted.

Suou had no time to duck behind the door again before Shuurei whirled and and jabbed a finger at him. He would swear he felt a shove even ten feet away. "And _Tan-tan_ could have told me he was promoted instead of fired," she said without breaking rhythm.

He stepped out into the courtyard. "What brings you all the way out here?"

Shuurei stood, fists on her hips, and looked him over. He resisted the itch to stand a little straighter under her scrutiny and Seiran's glare. Then she crossed the space between them in three bounding steps and flung her arms around his neck. "It _is_ good to see you, Tan-tan," she murmured into his chest, squeezing him tightly for just a moment. He hugged her gingerly until she shook them both, took a step back, and settled into her professional posture. "I need to see a few of your reports." One of the horses shifted, jangling its riding gear, and she looked over her shoulder at her bamboo slinger. The man wore his habitual glare, but Suou was surprised to note no added animosity. "And you need to tell Seiran where he can settle the horses," she added.

"Ah, well," Suou began automatically, "there's a small paddock behind the house. Or there's a stable—"

"Here will be fine," Seiran interrupted. He began to lead the horses away. "I will return as soon as I have them settled, my lady."

Shuurei waved absently, most of her attention expectantly on Suou. "The reports, Tan-tan?"

He sighed and stepped over the bamboo and back through the door. "This way. What do you need?"

"I want any reports you have on Mayor Kan of the village about two days' ride south of here." She looked angry, her face set and determined. "We think he may have accomplices in the Censorate messenger system in the province. The only word we have received about him is from a private message to Ensei." She aimed a glare at him, but didn't stray from her topic. "You mentioned him as though we should know him."

Suou himself frowned now. "Yes, you should. I've written about him at least three times, and there are original reports from the gyoshi I supervise." He led Shuurei into the room where he kept his Censorate work and waved her to the desk as he went over to the shelves.

"And please divide them into information that you have sent to the capital and what you have kept here," Shuurei added.

"Of course, of course," he mumbled without looking up from his search. Finally, he pulled the third report from the shelves and dropped the stack in front of her. "These are copies of the reports I have written. Not in such a fine style as the ones sent in, though."

She smiled a little before opening the first. "Tan-tan's reports are never in a fine style," she told the papers.

He crossed his arms. "When have you seen my reports?"

Shuurei blinked up at him innocently. "Have you already forgotten our work together, Tan-tan? And what about the gyoshi reports?"

Suou grumbled as he turned back to the shelves. "I'm going, I'm going." He stacked the packets on paper on one arm, adding steadily as he went down the shelves. His left arm trembled a little when he put the last packet on, and he staggered back over to the desk. He sorted briskly. "These are the reports I included, these are those I haven't yet had a chance to write up, and these are the ones that seemed too minor to include."

Shuurei thanked him absently, already buried in his report with her paper and ink pot beside her. Suou shook his head and left her to her task. As he went to leave the room, he nearly walked into Seiran, who stood watching her from the doorway. After a grudging moment, Seiran moved to let him pass. Pointedly, Suou closed the screen separating the study from the house's living quarters. "I am surprised the Court could spare her for this. It seems minor for such travel."

Seiran shook his head, a quick jerk. "Where to you keep your tea things?"

Suou sighed again. "Still overprotective," he muttered.

"Did you say something, Tan-tan-kun?" Seiran asked. His eyes were hooded, and he wore a dangerous smile.

Suou shook his head quickly. "Nothing. This way."

Seiran briskly built up the fire in the stove and put water on to heat. Suou stayed out of his way. When Seiran had crossed the kitchen to get tea leaves, well out of range of either hot coal or hot water, Suou added, "And I'm surprised they let her bring you. I'm sure you're an excellent bodyguard for the Prime Minister, but your pole-swinging friend was much more useful for research."

Seiran's hands squeezed around the tea container, and Suou felt a moment of concern for the lovely black lacquer before Seiran set it gently on the table. "What the Censorate Director wants, he gets." Seiran's face was shadowed, though, and Suou felt fairly sure that wasn't all of it.

"I see," he replied. "He is effective that way."

Seiran moved back around toward the heating water, and Suou adroitly slid to keep the table between them. He watched Seiran arrange cups and a small teapot on a tray, surprised to see three cups coming out. Seiran lifted the kettle to pour hot water over the leaves in the teapot. "And have you been effective here, Tan-tan-kun?" The stream of water didn't falter and his voice was entirely even, but Suou felt a shudder creep up his spine. That face was far too placid.

"No longer there for him to use against your lady," Suou retorted.

"Not very useful to her, either," Seiran murmured.

Suddenly irritated, Suou stepped around the table to stand right in front of Seiran, hands balled into fists. "I told that friend of yours before, I won't stay at her side when it's not the best place for me to be. I am a very good supervisor here, and I am gaining important experience." Huffing, he stood back and threw his hands in the air. "And of course you'll just act indifferent, no matter what I say."

Seiran picked up one of the cups and shoved it into Suou's chest. His hands came up automatically to receive it, and Seiran smiled just a bit, with his eyes, rather than the dangerous smile with his whole face. "You are a good friend to her." He turned away, ignoring Suou now. "Don't worry," he added as he picked up the tea-tray and walked towards the kitchen doorway. "I didn't poison it."

"Kan is the string into some wide conspiracy, isn't he?" Suou asked Seiran's retreating back. "You don't want it to get cut off the way that Undersecretary Mou was." Seiran left the room without responding, and Suou took a sip of tea. It was actually rather good. "At least she's learned not to babble everything," he said. The tea rippled with his breath.

***

Shuurei and Seiran left the next morning, shortly after his parents had gone to the fields again. His father had been delighted to see the woman who had saved his son and his mother rather bemused to have a princess humming her way around the kitchen. Yesterday had been a good meal, then Suou had spent the evening with Shuurei in the study, recopying his reports for her to take. Even Seiran had helped, after Shuurei sat him down with a pen and a task.

If they both still had shadows lingering in their eyes this morning, Shuurei's smile was at least a bit happier. "Now that I know what you're doing," she said firmly, "you can write to me as well as Ensei." Seiran's expression beside her vowed grave pain if Suou tried to refuse.

He bowed his head in submission. "It's a promise," he murmured.

"You still owe me that ransom money," she reminded him.

"I'll keep some of it in damages for what your bamboo retainer did to my door," Suou said, and she grinned. Seiran resettled the stick of bamboo in his saddlebags as Suou looked on with a wary eye.

Shuurei darted over and hugged him quickly. Then she returned to the horse and Seiran boosted her into the saddle with an ease that spoke of practice. He swung into the saddle himself, and Shuurei announced, "Well, we're off." They turned their horses in unison, and spurred them to a brisk walk.

Suou shaded his eyes to watch as they left, until both Shuurei and Seiran were just colorful smudges against the road. He reentered the house, shaking his head. It seemed he would forever be stuck at least at the edges of intrigue, but Shuurei would never leave the center. He rested a hand for a moment on the solid wood wall of his home, before heading into the library to continue the groundwork for a redesigned census. He would work from the edges for a while longer. _Keep her alive, Bamboo Retainer, Ensei. I don't want to return to the capital quite yet._


End file.
